Skull Valley Allotment -

ORC was asked to perform vegetation and stocking rate analysis across the 500,000 acre grazing allotment located in Skull Valley, Utah. At one point the area contained some of the most sought after salt desert shrub lands of the great basin. Due to severe year long grazing and significant alterations in the fire return interval, better than three quarters of this native vegetation has been lost. ORC was assigned the task of identifying current vegetation types, stocking rates, and current fire impact areas. This facilitated new management practices in an attempt to reduce cheatgrass invasion, reduce fire return intervals, and indicate proper placement of new pipelines and green-stripping for fire reduction. There is currently a lawsuit pending on all but two of the BLM allotments in Northern Utah. The Skull Valley allotment due to the work of ORC is not under litigation at this time.